


Make It Official

by KazOfScotland



Series: Hermione’s Haven Bingo 2021 [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 30 Days of Writing, F/F, Fluff, Friends with Benefits to Relationship, Hermione’s Haven Bingo 2021, Keep Calm and Write Something, first holiday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:42:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28797825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazOfScotland/pseuds/KazOfScotland
Summary: Ginny and Hermione have been Friends With Benefits but that doesn’t stop them both developing feelings for each other. An emotional morning and a trip to Hermione’s dream destination results in a very important question that will change their relationship for years to come.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ginny Weasley
Series: Hermione’s Haven Bingo 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2111397
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19
Collections: 30 Days of Winter Writing, Hermione's Haven Bingo 2021





	Make It Official

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a fill for my Hermione’s Haven Bingo card. The square is O5 and the prompt is Kinderdijk Windmills, Netherlands.  
> This fic is also a fill for Day 14 of 30 Days of Winter Writing at Keep Calm and Write Something for the prompt vacation.

It was the first day off from work that Hermione had had in a long time and her only plan was to relax with Ginny. But she woke up to find her sort of girlfriend was no longer lying next to her. She had been forced to finally take a holiday from the Ministry and had been glad that it lined up with when her girlfriend was going to be free. They weren’t in what could be classified as an official relationship, but it was time that they finally made a decision as to what they were. If they would just continue to be friends with benefits or if they would make it official. 

Well at least that had been the plan, but instead Ginny had surprised her by having two bags sitting packed at the front door once Hermione had made her way into the living room from her bedroom. She recognised one of the bags as her own travel bag, but she had no idea as to why Ginny would have taken it or why it would be sitting at the front door. She had thought that Ginny was home from a few weeks during the Quidditch Off-Season. But if Ginny had two bags packed and at the door already, did that mean that she was ready for this to be over with? Was Ginny heading back home to the Burrow early as well? 

“Morning love,” Hermione startled at Ginny’s sweet voice as she stood staring at the bags at the front. She hadn’t even realised that Ginny had been in the kitchen making them each a cup of coffee. It surprised her so much that she couldn’t stop the surprise from flooding through her as she looked at her girlfriend who was staring at her in return. “What’s wrong, love?” And that was the Ginny that she had fallen head over heels for. The Ginny that was caring and always tried to make sure that anyone around them was okay and would go out of her way to do so. 

“I don’t want you to leave,” Hermione answered with her voice just above a whisper as she looked down at the ground. She didn’t know how to process what she thought was going to happen. It hadn’t occurred to her just how attached she had gotten to her relationship with Ginny, and in some ways the thought of it ending made her feel like she was back in her first year of Hogwarts when she had no friends and didn’t know what to do. 

“Love,” Ginny’s voice was closer than Hermione had expected it to be. “Look at me, please, ‘Mione,” Ginny requested from behind her, and the softness and worry in Ginny’s voice forced the slightly older witch to look up and turn towards the redhead. She couldn’t stop her heart from breaking as she finally met Ginny’s gaze. 

“I don’t want you to leave me,” Hermione repeated as she tried to stop her voice from cracking. But it was difficult to prevent it from happening. The last thing she expected was for Ginny’s hand to gently graze her cheek and then gently hold her. It was more intimate than she thought it would ever be when Ginny realised that she didn’t want to be with her any longer. 

“I’m not leaving, love. I’m not leaving you, I promise,” Ginny replied as she pushed Hermione’s hair out of her face. It was gentle and loving, and it was everything that Hermione needed in that moment to stop her from breaking. But if it turned out that Ginny did leave her, she was positive that it would break her. “Why did you think that I was leaving?” Ginny asked as she pulled Hermione into a tight hug, it was reassuring and pushed the little parts of her heart that had broken back together. There were still cracks there, but it was reassuring. 

Despite the fact that Ginny was doing a pretty good job of reassuring Hermione that she wasn’t leaving, Hermione couldn’t bring herself to verbally answer for fear that her voice would crack and she would start to cry. So instead, she just lifted her hand and pointed towards the bags sitting at the front door. 

“Oh, Love, it was supposed to be a surprise,” Ginny laughed as she leaned back so that she could see Hermione’s face. “You work so hard, love, and I wanted to take you away for the week so that you can just relax and have some fun. I’m not going anywhere without you, ‘Mione, I promise,” Ginny assured her as she pulled Hermione into a tighter hug but it was clear that the older witch was finally relaxing, and that made Ginny relax as well. The red head waited could be tough and strong most of the time, but Hermione was lucky enough to get to witness the soft side of Ginny, and that was exactly what this was. 

“Where are we going?” Hermione finally asked after she had stood in Ginny’s embrace and just allowed herself to be and feel calm and relaxed. It was only once she had calmed down and actually enjoyed the comfort that Ginny was offering she realised that she probably shouldn’t have worried so much. Afterall, Ginny was not the type of person who would just leave without any warning at all. 

“That’s a surprise. Why don’t we have breakfast and then you can get ready so we can go?” Ginny suggested before she took Hermione’s hand and started to lead her over to the kitchen table where there was toast and a spread of breakfast foods for the two of them. It wasn’t romantic in the typical sense of the word, Hermione knew that, but it was perfect for both of them. It was what made their relationship sweet, not that they needed to be in a relationship that everyone else saw as being right, but that they could just be who they wanted to be. 

It was only hours later that Hermione gasped as she looked around at the landscape surrounding her. She had never expected that she would get a chance to walk around and see this. She had been a teenager the first time that she thought that she was going to die. She had fought in a war before she had even finished her education, and whilst she had travelled around Britain that year, she had never had a chance to really enjoy it at all. And that is why this was so special. 

The landscape of Britain was gorgeous, but there was too much blood that had been shed over the landscapes and that stopped her from being able to enjoy it. She couldn’t look at the landscapes at home without the memories of all that she and her friends had been through flooding her mind. That is why she loved this trip. It had gorgeous scenery that made her smile and feel at peace without the memories of the war. 

This vacation hadn’t been something that she had expected. She spent most of her days either working in the Ministry of Magic working as the Wizarding World’s equivalent of a lawyer, or she was working on SPEW. She had realised since her fifth year at Hogwarts that she couldn’t force freedom on the House Elves but she could make sure that if that was what they wanted they could have it and they would have somewhere to go and adjust. But all of that took up so much of her time that she didn’t really have a chance to do much without having to worry about her own life. 

She looked over towards her girlfriend who was standing watching her. In that moment, in that setting, surrounded by something so exciting, she saw what she wanted in life, she saw what she wanted most. She wanted this, moments of happiness with no worries. Moments where she could just be. 

“Are you enjoying yourself?” Hermione asked as she walked up to her girlfriend. The sight in front of her just made her smile. Ginny was standing in front of a historical windmill in one of the places that Hermione had always wanted to visit, Kinderdijk Windmills, but the sun was shining on her and the landscape and it made her smile so much. It was so picturesque that she couldn’t stop the little flutter that rushed through her, that flutter of love and excitement. 

“Of course I am, love,” Ginny’s reply only caused her smile to grow. She had worried that the youngest of the Weasley Clan wouldn’t enjoy it as she had insisted that Hermione could pick what their first activity in the Netherlands was. She knew it was nerdy and geeky and probably not all that romantic but she had never had a chance to visit the Kinderdijk Windmills and she was more than happy to let Ginny pick every other activity that they did, so long as she finally got to complete the trip that she had planned with her parents. “But I don’t know anything about these… windmills, my love.” 

That sentence had been exactly what Hermione needed to hear as she reached out and took Ginny’s hand in her own. They slowly started to walk along the walkway that ran past all of the windmills. They were magnificent in their size and presence. In a way they appeared to be completely unmoving, just stuck there no matter what was thrown at them, but that also made sense given what their job was. 

“Okay, so this is actually where the rivers Lek and Noord converge, and because of that there was an excess of water here and that would cause issues. So back in the 13th century the muggles decided to dig large canals, like what we have back home, however this didn’t work because the soaked soil would settle and the river’s water level would rise. So in the 1730s, maybe the early 1740s, they decided to build these windmills…” Hermione explained as they walked towards the first of the museums. The smile on her face never faltered. To some people it may seem as though it was just a way for Hermione to be a know-it-all, but it was because this place was important to her. 

“I was meant to come here with mum and dad, that summer that we went to hunt the Horcrux’s,” Hermione finally said after they had walked around the museum and were now sitting on a grassy area not the far away from the windmills just watching someone of them turn gently in the wind. It was causing both her own and Ginny’s hair to blow around and occasionally hit them in the face, but she loved the way that it gave her an excuse to brush it away from Ginny’s face. “We were meant to leave the day after Bill’s wedding, and I helped them to plan the trip even although I knew that I would never go.” 

She looked off into the distance wistfully. There were days when she missed her parents more than anything and she wished that she had never survived the Battle of Hogwarts. Today was a bittersweet day like that. She was glad to have finally seen the Kinderdijk windmills but it broke her heart as well. 

“I know, love. I’m just glad that you’re enjoying it,” Ginny’s reply was soft and sweet, as was the way that she pulled Hermione in against her side before pressing a chaste kiss to the top of Hermione’s head. It was intimate but it was also like a lazy Sunday morning, quiet and peaceful. “‘Mione there’s something I want to ask you.” 

Ginny’s words had been unexpected and caused Hermione to pull away. After the emotions of the day, she wasn’t sure how much more she could handle. Especially given the fact that she had already thought that Ginny was leaving her that morning. 

“Yes.” Her voice was weak and fragile but she couldn’t stop it. It was taking everything in her not to just apparate away and ignore whatever it was that Ginny wanted to ask her. 

“It’s nothing bad. Or I hope it’s nothing bad. I just wanted you to officially be my girlfriend. I want to tell everyone, I want everyone to know that I love you and that we’re together. I already think of you as my girlfriend. So, Hermione, will you be my girlfriend?” Ginny’s question once again caused Hermione to choke up. It was what she wanted from them but she hasn’t expected it. Especially not after her hysterical reaction to the bags sat at her front door that morning. 

It took her a couple of moments during which Ginny began to pull away and look worried, but she forced down the tears that were threatening to boil over. She hated that she was being so emotional, but she hoped that she would get through this without crying. 

She took a deep breath. And then she spoke. “Yes, of course I will.” 

The kiss that followed was both sweet and passionate. It was full of love, no hints of lust, although that would come later. At that moment they were just enjoying being together, and then later once they had celebrated they would decide on how to let their friends and family know. 

Kinderdijk Windmills and the Netherlands had been important to Hermione because of the fact that it was the last place that she had planned to go with her parents. But now it would hold a new importance of where her relationship with Ginny officially began. And if she had a chance it would be where they would take the next step. But that would not be for years to come yet. 


End file.
